Users can also take advantage of the site's unique functionality features, including a mapping tool to find recommended venues near their primary destinations. Those who open free Purple Passport accounts can create customized "Passports" of their favorite venues to share with friends via email.

The site's user-friendly, taste-making approach is a reflection of what its founders, best friends Jennifer Garcia-Alonso and Emily C. Brands, look for when they travel. "We've been traveling together for over a decade -- with matching purple-colored passport covers in tow," said Garcia-Alonso. The pair began blogging about their journeys on The Diary of The Purple Passport in 2008 and launched the beta version of The Purple Passport in 2010. In addition to Taipei, the collection of city guides includes London, Los Angeles, Beijing, Palm Beach, Paris, and New York, with Washington, DC forthcoming.

About The Purple Passport

The Purple Passport (http://www.thepurplepassport.com) is a web-based collection of chic, one-stop-shop guides to experiencing the world's cities in style. The site provides the full range of urban travel planning needs, from researching a trip start to finish, to reserving hotels, to creating an itinerary to be shared with travel companions. The Purple Passport team personally visits every spot that it reviews and never accepts compensation for featuring a venue on the site. First-person accounts of the team's travel experiences can be found on the companion blog, The Diary of The Purple Passport (http://diary.thepurplepassport.com).